Mother of God

What makes Luther so memorable is he will speak whatever he wants to say in your face. We certainly lack this kind of political incorrectness these days, for better or for worse. Not so with Barth. He still inherits this mark of Luther. Consider this statement, where he blasts Mariology for all its worth: “Mariology is an excrescence, i.e., a diseased construct of theological thought. Excrescences must be excised.” (I/2, 139)

(After that he spent seven pages, in small prints nonetheless, exorcising Mariology! And, obviously, it means that Barth is not involved in arbitrary name calling. He will really argue for his case. And, before you throw stones at me, bear in mind that we do acknowledge Mary as theotokos! We just don’t indulge in it. And if you have no idea of what I am talking about, I’ll just let you know that Mariology is not a doctrine of Super Mario Bros.)